Sunday, December 27, 2015

Late gift: Eye of the Tiger on Ukulele

RantWoman is fascinated by this video.

RantWoman does not play the ukulele and therefore feels it is completely inappropriate to comment about anything to do with ukulele technique. What completely charms RantWoman though: the ukulele is just not the first instrument that comes to mind when RantWoman thinks about an arrangement of Eye of the Tiger. That is unquestionably the point of this post.  Enjoy!



Friday, December 25, 2015

Weird Christmas presents featuring Franklin Graham, Christmas In The Ashram-Tom Prasada-Rao

RantWoman sat through all of Meeting for Worship feeling like Santa with a bag full of weird presents.

One of them involves evangelist Franklin Graham.

Brother Franklin has been having media snit-fits about how Muslims and Christians cannot possibly worship the same God because the God he worships has a son named Jesus and the God Muslims worship only has a prophet named Jesus.

The Franklin Graham-themed package in RantWoman's mind: RantWoman wonders what kind of families Brother Franklin hangs out with. RantWoman knows of PLENTY of families where different branches of the family have really different versions of who is whose parent, whether someone's "aunt" is really their mother or whether someone's "mom" is really their grandmother. Other families for any number of reasons have no idea one or more branches even exist.

So much as RantWoman can imagine Brother Franklin wanting to be certain in his viewpoint, RantWoman thinks it might be better to think about how we all have only one planet we are sharing and what are we called to do to share better?

RantWoman could think about all that, but RantWoman could easily also just get distracted with the interfaith musical tangle below.


Sunday, December 20, 2015

Fourth Sunday: Johann Sebastian Bach: Concertos For Oboe & Oboe D'Amore Advent and construction Crane

First some music




Now MAYBE RantWoman will get to her intended riffs on this photo of the construction crane nearest her Meeting including things tying centuries together and techno renditions of evergreens. Maybe.


How many photographing on a smartphone while blind elements can YOU find?
Construction crane
Blue boom
Christmas Tree
Lights zigzagging
up the pole

 



Monday, December 14, 2015

Email, aliens, present

...the aliens....

RantWoman, they don't want to know about the aliens, I'm pretty sure.

RantWoman actually does not necessarily want to know about the aliens either.

Ah, but...

Unwrapped
Unwrapped

Recently, RantWoman was being, um, plainspoken about aliens who seem to "help" someone write email.

RantWoman's counterpart in the conversation: RANTWOMAN, it's public record. Here's where to look! The aliens in his mother's head offed 3 of his siblings!"

RantWoman has not felt called to go look at public record.

RantWoman is really glad that so far, all this person's aliens do is "help" about email.

Bless us all oh Lord in this festive holiday season...

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Eighth Night Christmas overtaking? Ode to Joy in Yiddish




The only thing better than single holiday kitsch is joint holiday kitsch
Christmas Tree with a
Menorah on top

RantWoman, after the fact, thanks Jewish Voices For Peace for a WONDERFUL centered 8th Night vigil at Pacific Place in downtown Seattle. RantWoman's perspective as an ally with about the level of sophistication to say "Happy Hanukkah:" the event was just In Your Face enough to be clear about it's views and still very centered. Plus it was a nice follow-on to a #BlackLivesMatter event on Black Friday.


W. A. Mozart "Oboe Concerto" Moscow Virtuosi Um No, another rendition

Yeah verily, God has commanded RantWoman to provide oboe music for advent.

Bless the Lord for he / she / insert pronoun construction of choice. has not particularly gotten RantWoman to get her act together in time to riff on everything it comes to mind to riff on.

Cope.

And enjoy the music

Oops, um, no.RantWoman is still getting the hand of numerous copyright issues and apologizes for needing to substitue a different version.


Saturday, December 12, 2015

Seventh Night Cactus Menorah and Carmen

Now all you need is the bunuelos
Southwest Cactus Menorah

Dedicated to everyone whose family can suddenly go all telenovela on the situation around any holiday whatsoever.

Have some bunuelos and enjoy the thought of professionals in formal concert dress playing one piano, six hands.



Friday, December 11, 2015

Hamza Warsame: Say His Name

1. If Friends with a peace-loving interfaith bent do nothing else please offer prayers for the family of Hamza Warsame, a 17-year-old Somali Running Start student from Rainier Beach High School who was attending classes at Seattle Central Community College. Last weekend, Hamza fell from a 6-story building near the Seattle Central Campus and died of his i injuries later that same day.

RantWoman has been saying prayers rising from the #justice4Hamza  #SayHisName thread, prayers for Hamza’s family, for a homicide investigation arising after public #blacklivesmatter outcry based on concern from Hamza's friends about a beating, a hate crime, and him getting pushed to his death. Early in the tweet stream the radioactive word suicide occurred along with comments about Hamza not seeming suicidal. RantWoman apologizes for not chasing down exact details about family concerns or other most current details of the police investigation. RantWoman simply offers prayers for the dead youth, his sister Ikram and the rest of his family and friends, as well as for a thorough and effective investigation with particular attention to the possible hate crime issue.

2. In a spirit of Interfaith solidarity, RantWoman offers the following link as well. Faith Action Network interfaith Leaders' Council statement  RantWoman thinks it MIGHT have been nice to refer also to Hamza’s death, but that is RantWoman.

3. Meeting for worship last week featured NOT ONE SINGLE message about events in San Bernardino. RantWoman was seasoning a message about President Obama SO FAR not finding anything to bomb in connection with the atrocities in San Bernardino. Mercifully the message did not emerge from RantWoman’s mouth during worship.

4. Speaking of general community agitation, RantWoman found the #justice4Hamza thread while doing Twitter checking about different unexpected fuss.  RantWoman's journey home from Meeting last week came with unexpected fuss, unexpected fuss in the form of a car chase with a gun-brandishing soul who carjacked 3 different cars, led police on a car chase all over downtown, the University District and NE Seattle before departing to other realms in a hail of police gunfire. RantWoman happened to be leaving Meeting just as police cars and sirens were going every which way around her. RantWoman originally intended to walk a few blocks to a shorter bus ride home, but quickly grokked that she would probably be safer aboard the first bus going anywhere vaguely in the direction of home and better informed fishing on Twitter than trying to make sense of all the sirens and flashing blue lights.


Dear God, Santa Claus, the Great Pumpkin, whoever is available, PLEASE bring me a lot less gunfire and tragedy!

Sixth Night Love One Another


What can go wrong if we just line everyone up and sing?



Are these choristers or Hanukkah candles
Menorah with
Calico candles



Thursday, December 10, 2015

Happy Hanukkah Fifth Night. Conversions.

Fifth Night. RantWoman does not know about anyone else but by the fifth night of celebration, RantWoman's relatives might be getting, well, relative. RantWoman is not clear the item below will help. That would be part of the problem.
Colorful
Very multicolored Menorah
 
RantWoman's theme for this year for Hanukah is peculiar gifts images or music or stories that have some "peculiar gift" element. Peculiar gifts include the path to this leading and some surprisingly ferocious need still to riff on last year's "Nothing appropriate" theme but this year with new people.

Casting?

Stay tuned.

Please be advised. RantWoman does not promise tasteful. Nor does RantWoman apologize for laughing very hard.

Stephen Colbert posthumously circucises all dead Mormons. Yeah, you have to CHOOSE to click.

Stephen Colbert simultaneously converts all dead mormons to Judaism.

Dr. Laura. Pouring Rain. Holiday Venn Diagram




Actual Popcorn kernels
Nice Fresh PopCorn Kernels

Holiday popcorn kernel meditations upon the wisdom of Dr. Laura:

"Do not piss on my leg and tell me it's raining."

It IS pouring rain

And  people also keep pissing on my leg!

Bless us oh Lord....


And another random holiday offering, along with a link for more from the same source.

A red and green venn diagram featuring God, Santa Claus, Spider Man, The Spanish Inquisition. Get sighted Help


http://www.stephenwildish.co.uk/

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Fourth Night: Beautiful music not particularly to theme



What's the black background about?
Simple menorah, colored candles


Not very flashy menorah and some just gorgeous diva moments.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Birthday Presence: Gunnison, Charlie, Holiday Music


For people and things that
A poinsettia
 

In the realm of presents from Facebookistan, RantWoman humbly and very gratefully counts the Facebook mechanism for alerting one to one's friends' birthdays. Today Facebook alerted RantWoman to the 83rd birthday of someone who needs no nom de blog and therefore simply goes by Charlie.

Happy 83rd Birthday Charlie, and if you are no longer with us love and blessings to your family where you have lived since moving out of RantWoman's building.

Charlie has been blind since birth. RantWoman, morbidly always wants to know more detail but does not. Charlie grew up in Colorado and graduated from the Colorado School of the Blind with expertise in piano tuning.

Until a few months ago, Charlie lived in RantWoman's building and even occasionally still frequented the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing. Charlie was still learning about technology and screen readers and all the new things the internet throws at people. He was not learning as fast as others but he was definitely still learning.


Here anyway, not particularly evocative of Charlie but still
Santa Claus

He also contributed great faith and centeredness, oh an occasional need fo conversational de-escalation when conversations with certain combinations of people veered too erratically around sex and religion and everyone's interest in talking--but not necessarily listening--about both.

Still another claim to fame: Charlie's interest in Norwegian, on account of which he has both travelled to Norway and left the Friendly Neighborhood Center braille embossing software enriched with options for output in Norwegian.

Charlie's dream trip to Norway

Article headline RantWoman finds cloying about trip







Look, it's Gunnison. It's winter. Who cares beyond that.
Gunnison, CO Winter
The other fascinating circumstance, the reason RantWoman has stuck a bunch of photographic allusions to childhood Christmases in the RantFamily household in with Charlie's birthday celebration: RantWoman and Charlie one day were comparing dates and places we lived. RantWoman is almost CERTAIN that her former neighbor Charlie is also the Charlie who came one time to tune the piano at the RantFamily household in ...Gunnison CO.



The Google is a great and glorious vehicle for time travel. The trim used to be green though
The Rant Family House 1966-1972
217 S Main
Gunnison CO
 



Ah, yes, and again with RantWoman's fixation about one piano six hands, and not even any nuclear family meltdowns.






Third Night: about darn time for some kind of prayer in words!


Blessing to have someone to read this prayer
Menorah with prayer



Sunday, December 6, 2015

Happy Hanukkah World

Happy Hanukkah World!

Candle crescendo
Happy Hanukkah  World
RantWoman does not exactly personally celebrate  Hanukkah except as an excuse sometimes to eat greasy food (Buneulos? Sweet potato latkes? Donuts?) or share other celebratory practices with people who do observe Hanukkah.

This year's hanukkah celebration theme will be surprise gifts. It is inspired by all the gifts that turned up in an annual act of memory, as well as some other gifts in RantWoman's media streams.

The world of blind geeks is not very large and the world of blind female geeks is even smaller. RantWoman and another blind female geek have a connection now mostly receded in memory. We have spoken on the phone but never met. We cross paths in various electronic streamsand sometimes somewhere in the flow kind of say privately "Oh, hi." 

This year, RantWoman looked in a stream where she had not previously looked. RantWoman found exactly one person with the expected name. The person is Facebook friends with some of the same blind geeks RantWoman is friends with. Sevral of RantWoman's Hanukkah gifts are other things RantWoman found, accompanied by RantWoman's usual selection of the kitschiest menorahs she can find.

Trick question to non-blind readers: Can you find RantWoman touches with the images?

Advent: week 2: Handel; Hanuukkah on the horizon

As RantWoman said last week, God has commanded her to welcome Advent with oboe music. RantWoman is used to holidays full of all sorts of musical endeavors and finds this command perplexing but not disagreeable.

But then God also has in the past, like somewhere in the depths of the last legislative session, commanded RantWoman to talk IN MEETING FOR WORSHIP about the capital gains tax. RantWoman's faithfulness was rewarded by encouraging and supportive conversations with two different newcomers to Meeting. Bless us oh Lord while we sort sense and future work from the holiday frenzy.



Menorah of Many Colors
Faux Stained Glass menorah
Hanukkah is on the horizon and RantWoman wound up with an extra graphic.

RantWoman assuredly has not been given to understand why this particular graphic showed up when RantWoman was asking her oracle, oops her search engine for Sponge Bob menorahs.

RantWoman is especially charmed by the colors , so in anticipation....

And now, as promised, the oboe, again. RantWoman has NO explanation for the visual oddities of this clip. RantWoman recommends just letting oneself get lost in the music. ON Planet RantWoman this 8 minutes is enough to leave RantWoman centered for hours.





Sunday, November 29, 2015

Advent onset Telemann - Oboe Sonatas


Clear lines that would have fun tactile qualities as an embroidery project
Festive Holly and Poinsettia motif
God has instructed RantWoman that advent is to be observed with the Oboe, baroque or early classical. RantWOman is unclear whether further instructions and Bible readings will be forthcoming. In the meantime, RantWoman hopes this cultivates a spirit of worship.


Saturday, November 28, 2015

Rossini Barber of Seville Fantasie for Piano 6 hands at Classical Underg...



Christmas Cactus on Planet RantWoman
Christmas Cactus 11 28 2015

RantWoman celebrates the email #blackFriday which has lasted weeks already. RantWoman celebrates with an eccentric accumulation of electronic gifts. Enjoy.

The following MIGHT have resulted if the three RantChildren were able to forestall nuclear family meltdown and hold the Siblinghood of Personkind together long enough to

1. Rehearse our 1 piano 6 hands endeavors to concertworthiness

2. Find venues that would book us.

3. Put on concert wear and present ourselves professionally.

RantWoman recommends enjoying this bit from The Barber of Seville instead of waiting around for the RantSiblings.


Friday, November 27, 2015

A Colbert Christmas - Please be patient (Feist)

In observance of National Buy-Nothing Day, with options for those Bad Friends who absolutely MUST buy something. Please by patient!


Sunday, November 22, 2015

The first student sit-in at Princeton in 20 years

RantWoman THOUGHT she was supposed to stay on a sort of linear path involving some basic "do this daily to function" tasks and some work RantWoman would characterize partly as #BlackLivesMatter. RantWoman thought this, but apparently God has other ideas or at least eccentric pre-holiday gifts arriving with  the next increment of #christmascactus


Look, see, things continue to flower
Christmas cactus 11 21 2015


RantWoman is interested to learn via eddies in her tweet stream that ever since the black students at Mizzou were able to force out the university president, there has been a wave of protests at a number of colleges: Towson State in MD, the University of North Carolina, a couple others. RantWoman finds it energizing to hear of these protests.


Don't tell anyone: there is graffitti painted on the tiger
Tiger in front of Nassau Hall

#occupyNassau  #PrincetonProtest

Posted in a couple places on Facebook:
Last night when I was following events on a different hashtag, Twitter served me uup a couple items with the tag #OccupyNassau about Princeton students occupying Nassau Hall, at one time the nation's capitol asking Princeton to address Woodrow Wilson's racist legacy and calling for more student space specifically for the Black experience.
On Facebook, the hashtag has a wonderful video of students' statements about why they are participating, a great solidarity statement by Cornel West and several other items I did not interact with.
Other items appear under #PrincetonProtest
My facebook feed includes both other veterans of Nassau Hall sit-ins and lots of people who probably wonder, look you went to Princeton, why did you have to go and sit in too?
It was  senior year, an anti-apartheid protest related to divestment questions.  Also, my Freshman year anti-apartheid activists held an all-night study-in inside the section of Firestone library that houses government and UN documents. I thought of participating and supported it but did not join in.
So this time I want to show solidarity just by posting this to Facebook.

My freshman year I lived in 1901 hall. I lived in a 3-room suite with two other women. We were told that in the 1800's our suite would have housed one Princeton gentleman and his slave but the custom was to free slaves upon graduation. That legacy is a piece of what one acquires by enrolling in Princeton.

I would not have learned as much about the diversity of African American experience if I had, say, stayed in MT for college. I continue to learn. And I support students urging people to continue to learn, and I think it's probably about darn time people thought about Woodrow Wilson being what one commentator calls "a racist pig, even by the standards of his time."

Student statements, a sampling
Naimah Hakim '16 Black Justice League organizer
Cornel West "Justice is what love looks like in pulbic."

Why students are participating: iffy audio and interesting signs if you can read them

Rev William Barber


Daily Princetoninan: students walk out, occupy Nassau Hall, present demands

Daily Princetonian: Eisgruber and BJL come to agreement

One of the things RantWoman really likes about how this sit-in turned out is a commitment to continued conversation! RantWoman expects we are going to learn / relearn a lot more about Woodrow Wilson. Gotta love that continuing revelation!
Article: Woodrow Wilson was a racist pig even by the standards of his day.

Friday, November 20, 2015

Gratitude, the Pumpkin Patch, Faithfulness

RantWoman really really is trying to cultivate gratitude but other things keep showing up in the pumpkin patch too, kind of like thesilly pilgrim hat no pumkin RantWoman has ever seen really needs.

Happy Thanksgiving pumpkins, one with a pilgrim hat


Take the old hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness. RantWoman made the mistake of clicking on one link. There were SO many owww's in the performance  worming their way into RantWoman's earworm file, bless us oh lord and forgive RantWoman excessive candor, that it took RantWoman listening to THREE other versions to clear her head.

And never mind about gendered language.

RantWoman is not sure whether it is good or not to have kind of a built-in filter that goes to music sometimes in preference to arguing theology in the words.

RantWoman had to STOP, though, for fear of wandering into the realms of islamophobia and bad theology bilge she is trying to distract herself from

The Oww version is at the bottom.


Babbi Mason, First Baptist Church Jacksonville FL with warm intro

Rev. Rance Allen

Cannot figure out who but at least there is a little more arrangement

Went to #1 on iTunes but such an off earworm that it took 3 other versions to clear my head!

Sunday, November 15, 2015

Nadia Bolz Weber, Annoying People, Sunsets, God wanting to be known




Nadia Bolz Weber on God wanting to be known more in annoying peoplethan in sunsets



RantWoman is not quite sure she has enough tatoos to get here. MAYBE tatoos would help?

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Gratitude; Christmas Cactus

Grateful for the continuing flowering of the #ChristmasCactus.

Grateful for enough eyeball function and the right geekery to be able to see the blossoms in the photo.


Find the pink blossoms. Find the pink and white blossoms.
Christmas Cactus 11 14 2015
Grateful this time for RantMom's "I MUST get my family together and feed them" instincts, and for getting an early start a little ahead of Thanksgiving, just in time to celebrate RantMom's  BIRTHDAY!!!!

Celebration a little belated, but family tradition of inviting from the island of misfit toys will generate a fun, interesting guest list.

Fun, interesting guest list includes Irrepressible Nephew (Yeah!!!) but not his parents (Oh Well.)


Friday, November 13, 2015

Watch oh lord with those who wake or watch or weep tonight, but why Paris?



Lit Candle cupped in hands
Pray for Paris
from sojo.net
First we get the Pray for #Paris part down. It's monstrous. There are ohter places where monstrous things are happening: Burundi, Syria, numerous places in Ukraine. many places in Mexico, even in gun crime terms some places in the US.

But tonight we pray for #Paris.

And we hold questions:

--Why Paris?

   --RantWoman is not aware of Paris being involved for instance in the battle of the bomimbing campaigns in Syria.

    --RantWoman is not aware that Paris has done anything one way or the other as far as Europe's current refugee crisis.

   --Leftovers from #CharlieHebdo?


--Why now when the climate change talks will bring many more dignitaries, okay and security details in just a few days?

Eiffel Tower Peace Sign

--And why the choice of targets?

   --An American death metal band concert?

  --A Cambodian restaurant?

 --Okay, the prime minister was at the soccer game....

But still, Why #Paris?

Ghoulish skeleton fiddler





House eyes: Dark and Stormy, with Binge Blog Leftovers: Continuing Revelation

Yea verily, not likely RantWoman's first Quaker apostasy: RantWoman's experience is that God shows up in meetings run all kinds of ways, under different modesls of consensus and even, gasp, under Roberts' Rules of Order. That is God better show up because RantWoman will not get done what is needed without God.

Apparently spookiness helps too.


Oh Look! Continuing Revelation
Look! Careful what you may see!
In RantWoman's most recent Roberts Rules of Order experience God showed up by granting RantWoman the posterior fortitude to sit through the entire proceeding so that the description of the committee RantWoman chairs could be amended in the organization's constitution.

God also showed up with a quaking need, after multiple rounds of vexatious election votes repeating themes from previous years to speak about people wearing too many hats and positions rotating among friends with limitations on the inclusion of new talent. God has not yet showed up in the right words in email or phone conversation. Hold that problem in the Light.

In the realm of Angelic troublemakers:
WA had a law like the ADA decades before the rest of the country. One of RantWoman's angelic troublemakers gave a speech recently about the first two cases she helped file under this legislation:

Case No1. The predecessor of the Dept of Services for the Blind resisted hiring a blind mental health specialist.

Then shortly,Case No 2. the Talking Book and braille library could not imagine hiring a blind receptionist.

That was decades ago.

in the realm of need for continuing revelation, this very year, the Governor's commission on Employment of People with Disabilities, an organization that has plenty of access to training about how to produce accessible documents, distributed at least one iteration of press release as a poorly produced PDF that was unreadable to users of some versions of screen reading software and comical because of scanning errors to users of other versions of the software.

If RantWoman were anywhere near the pure light of virtue she vaguely things might be achievable in some distant millenium, RantWoman would spend a rainy Friday the 13th playing with accessibility tools to see whehter she can in fact extract from email enough suggestions to get the offending documents read.

Fear not. There is not enough virtue in the entire universe to get RantWoman revved up about software tricks tonight. Instead, a link to the pure unvarnished layers of one simple proclamation AND of need for continuing revelation in the form of eager young former Americorps interns now being schooled at RantWoman's feet.
RantWoman on Training about Accessible Document Creation

Sardonic pumpkins and Friday the 13th prayers.

It's a dark and stormy Friday the 13th. Western WA REALLY, Really, really needs the rain, but the dark and stormy thing still still wears on people.

It's weathermen in parkas season on WA mountain passes. Western WA really needs the moisture.

There has been enough of an earthquake in Japan to generate tsunami warnings all around the Ring of Fire.

The world's heart beats for #Paris. RantWoman thinks there are some other cities the world's hear needs to be beating for too, but somehow a assault rifles showing up somewhere not already under bombardment gets people's attention. So RantWoman is sending prayers!

 and RantWoman has binge blog images left over.

God Bless us all. (gospodi pomilyi / gospodi blagoslovi)


Three pumkins leering sardonically



Binge Blog: not the first, not the last, leftovers


Leftover Halloween graphic
Houses, Full Moon, Bats Flapping Wings
 

The bedbugs have offered to help RantWoman screen her email. Frankly, don't tell the bedbugs but their "help" would not necessarily be RantWoman's first choice. Nevertheless, they may be who is available.

Stay tuned for further communications efforts

Monday, November 9, 2015

Laura Alonso, Representative, Argentine National Congress

A really cool interview vaguely election-themed except that the elections are in Argentina!




As an aside, RantWoman remembers sometime in the 1990's when Francis Fukuyama, the person conducting this interview proclaimed The End of History. RantWoman wonders what he has to say about "The end of History" 30 years on.

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Christmas Cactus Increment of Gratitude

Will RantWoman get posted or will she not reflections on Favorite Angelic Troublemaker's youth, people in other parts of her life besides Meeting wearing too many hats, and why or why, GOD, is RantWoman called in more than one part of her life to excuse me 25 years... is all well and good and....?

Who cares? RantWoman's #christmascactus is sharing another increment of abundance!


Christmas Cactuses Nov 7
Glory bursting forth



Enjoy and exude gratitude.


Monday, November 2, 2015

Binge Blog The bedbugs and "Not Good for the Community."

Apparently the bedbugs want to participate in the Halloween / All Souls day binge blog. Who knew?

Binge blogging surrounded by flapping bats and leering pumpkins
The Bedbugs' favorite picture from RantWoman's inage binge

Recently RantWoman has received various emanations from her Meeting's bedbugs. RantWoman has been given to understand that the emanations have something to do with the bedbugs' custom of offering a State of Society missive on leap days. Since RantWoman's Meeting is getting started early about the State of Society, the bedbugs also seem to have a lot to say.

RantWoman is aware that, as a conscientious interpreter, she is supposed to render utterances word for word, grammatical lapse for grammatical lapse. Frankly RantWoman cannot pick single voices out of the crowd. Some of the bedbugs also either harken back to the number and formal / informal patterns of early Quaker plain speech or just like "they" for being non-gender-specific even if wrong in number, RantWoman is simply going to do the best she can to render the thoughts in somewhat comprehensible English.

Please note : the text will NOT for instance be subjected to either smartphone speech recognition or smartphone autocorrect.

The bedbugs are cranky. They do NOT like the time change.

The bedbugs are dyspeptic. They are being told repeatedly how badly Seattle needs rain and moisture, but they are cross about grey and grey and endless piles of slimy leaves for the likes of RantWoman and Ambassador Thwack to snowplow their way through.

The bedbugs are irascible and irritated. They think they are entitled NOT even to think about traffic hazards, white cane physics (the branch of physics where cars are SUPPOSED to stop at the sight of a person with a white cane in their half of the roadway but nothing about the "supposed to" changes the physics of what happens if the cars do not stop), grab the blind person and bless them approaches to street crossing, otherwise known as drag someone across a busy street ignoring all good sense unintentional encounters with data of the form "Hell yes that is a more dangerous section of street than average." Mainly the bedbugs appreciate the point of even being alive to celebrate All Saints Day despite a number of outrageous Grab the Blind Person and Bless them moments.

Do any readers want to guess who besides RantWoman these outrageous Grab The Blind Person moments involved or WHEN this was occurring.

Hint: "It's not good for the Community" Friend earned this particular nom de blog for, to RantWoman's ear telling RantWoman not even to try to talk about the issue while the other Friend was baying in public about....  Never mind why the $##$@* RantWoman is still upset!

The bedbugs are actually not used to seeing RantWoman so upset she cannot talk, but they realize that if RantWoman is in that state she may or may not be able to pick up the phone and say ever so politely in words that make sense to people who do not even want to think about problems that.... The bedbugs are familiar with RantWoman's proclivity for email, a gift that has been well exercised in this situation.

And guess what! The ONLY indication in the form of direct communication that ANYONE gets how deeply troubling and offensive and #$@Q#$#$ dangerous this problem was to RantWoman is none other than the offending Friend himself! RantWoman's brain is still short circuiting so badly about the entire topic that she is not even going to try to name the titles of all the Friends who.... SOMEONE, please hold them all in the Light and COPE if around RantWoman Light spills over into Inner Blowtorch! And this goes double for anyone taking said Friend's word for it that RantWoman is fine without finding a way to ask RantWoman!

Furthermore the bedbugs see Wonder Quaker on the horizon. At this point RantWoman is glad that Conflict is a Gift of God Friend has himself moved away from his own daily insistence on crossing a very busy street with stoplights at the top and bottom of a hill and a bus stop in the middle between the lights. And did RantWoman mention higher than average car vs ped accident rates, data collected during media coverage of a multiple fatality drunk driver vs ped accident on that same stretch of road.

There. Now will the bedbugs or won't they subside for awhile, at least until Leap Day rolls around...? Will they calm down enough to hear lots of other voices at RantWoman's Meeting?

Stay tuned?


Creeping, creeping...

Shhhhh, The HOLIDAYS are creeping up on us. On Planet RantWoman it is not permissible, unless one is say a performer needing to plan rehearsal and event schedules, to speak of Christmas, etc until after Halloween.

Halloween is over.

And RantWoman's Christmas cactuses are budding, a season which always fills RantWoman's heart with joy!

Budding Nov. 2
Unruly houseplants and especially Christmas cactuses
Let us see what other joys one can find.


Belated Binge Blog:Does your Halloween costume marginalize people with disabilities?


Jack-o-lanterns with really different eyes
3 pumpkins, really different eyes

RantWoman, MUST YOU always argue and quibble with EVERYONE about EVERYTHING?

Hopefully not QUITE Everything. But even this wonderful video made RantWoman argumentative. See below








See, charmed as RantWoman is, the video also put her in mind of previous reflections about scars, the grotesque, and other topics that are scary year-round.
Map like a Pirate but exercise too!

Sunday, November 1, 2015

The Horror: Kwitcherbitchin' with Pumpkin Witch

Presenting:

RantMom at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme computing.

RantMom, between
Internet Searches
Thank you God for planting in both RantWomen's heads the thought that RantMom should just show up at the Friendly Neighborhood Center during regular hours and RantWoman would help her in approximately the same terms she helps other people.

What does that say? How about that? Okay, click / try tapping on that.

RantWoman has been helping another customer in approximately these terms. RantWoman realized that the same approach definitely applies to RantMom. If RantWoman can talk her through a couple times, she cannot help knowing at some point how to do on her own. RantWoman means to say more about RantMom and excessive blinkiness but that will be on another blog.


RantWoman in Tech Support All Star / Reality Check Cheerleader mode.


Smiling Pumpkin in witch's hat on background of candles
Pumpkin Witch,
Tech Support Goddess
Reality Check Cheerleader wants to say to RantMom,

"Look Ma, you are doing FINE. Listen to all these other people and what they struggle with.

Now, keep trying.

and Kwitcherbitchin'

and be glad you have only your own problems.

Hold RantMom in the Light and not just all those candles in the picture!


Binge Blog: medium scary with drumming



Imagine
Imagine a drumhead with...

Bung  Bung  Bung

RantWoman heard this week via Facebook of a Buddhist nun she knows. RantWoman remembers her from one context but thinks she saw her in several places. She played a drum and walked a lot. The playing a drum part is supposed to make one feel more peaceful.

RantWoman does not automatically take to this flavor of peace. In face, Sometimes RantWoman can become downright hostile. Sometimes if RantWoman hears even ONE more....

Neverthless RantWoman is very glad Buddhist nun friend is still walking.

Queries: note to whoever reads this. Make some queries. Suggestion: queries about being both blessed and vexed at the same time. Or ask your guide for another direction and THEN make some queries.




The Horror: Just Died / Not Dead Yet


RIP, but first
Belligerent Request from someone
demanding that people  figure out
who their friends are according to his method
This post is dedicated to Mr. Attack Receptionist, who very sweetly, understandably still misses his late wife.

Dude, thank you so much for this posting.

Look, RantWoman does not really care about your views of resurrection offered in response to someone else's prayers. Furthermore, RantWoman is decidedly emoji-challenged.

RantWoman will certainly miss you, both because you are ALMOST as good at Intemperate emails as RantWoman herself, and because you are WAY more likely to send the intemperate emails at wee hours of the morning.


Rest in Peace.

And no, RantWoman is not even going to bother about the Latin. It would not help.


Yeah, Yeah, premature in this case but Dude is in hospice
Crosses, tombstones, trees,
perhaps suggesting
a multiconfessional graveyard


Saturday, October 31, 2015

Binge Blog: The Dead Spread, Trees of Life

RantWoman assumes nothing one way or another about neighbor Martinez and Day of the Dead based on her last name. But she gets a tree of life picture for landing a memorial in the middle of RantWoman's #Halloween blog binge.


Arbol para Dia de los Muertos
Day of the Dead Tree of Life--with SKULLS and flowers


Neighbor Martinez was a Jehovah's Witness. RantWoman did not even think to ask about the worship at Kingdom Hall when another neighbor was inviting people to the the after party Dead Spread to be held in the vicinity of the RantWoman / late Neighbor Martinez's domicile.

RantWoman thinks it's a bad idea to judge a faith community on the basis of its Dead spread, but the dead spread for Neighbor Martinez was an inspiration, both for food and for everyone there being utterly welcoming, also bronwer than RantWoman.

The menu: chicken, both roasted and fried, deviled eggs, some kind of hot links dish to be sure we got our nitrites, potato salad, green salad, some kind of green bean dish, some other things RantWoman did not pay attention to. Desserts: cookies, cakes, brownies. Drinks: punch, water, soda.RantWoman was invited to take leftovers home for later but was really glad to see the leftovers were well dispersed before RantWoman got around to thinking of any take-homes, a good bet with resurrection a ways off.



At rest? "Asleep?"
Angel, graves, grey mist


RantWoman was interested to learn:
Kingdom Hall nearby hosts 3 congregations, 2 English-speaking ones and a Chinese Speaking one. They take turns using the facility. They all work different geographical areas and would not all fit at the same time.

Inviting Neighbor said her congregation has about 70 "publishers," people who go out to preach. Inviting Neighbor said the actual service is more of a talk. Some people wore black; lots did not.
Inviting Neighbor knows a LOT about medical powers of attorney, partly because of Witnesses' beliefs about blood transfusions. RantWoman was glad to hear today the Witnesses also believe in flu shots! No point in heading off for the pre-resurrection doze any sooner than absolutely unavoidable.
RantWoman made mental note to ask more about birthdays: Inviting Neibghobor mentioned something at Kingdom Hall on her sister's birthday in march. RantWoman is curious what birthday means since RantWoman thought Witnesses do nto really observe birthdays.

Whole experience also brought to mind Arborist buddy of RantBrother's. Arborist Buddy was a Jehovah's Witness, but not enough of a Witness to pass up a RantBrother invitation to visit a strip club. When RantDad was still alive, Arborist Buddy would sometimes bring a yong "publisher" by the RantParents' house for coffer after a round of Saturday morning rejections. RantBrother worked with Arborist BusinessGuy off and on for a long time and then crashed at various places Arborist Buddy owned. Then Arborist Buddy remarried. RantBrother (understandably) failed to charm Second Wife. But RantWoman deeply respects the long friendship before that.

Anyway, to Neighbor Martinez, blessings on your journey and to those who hosted the Dead Spread blessings on the feast!

The Horror: No Barefoot Lawyer in Worship--so far!

(Alert readers will probably have NO problem guessing some good reasons RantWoman's ruminations on themes in this post did not make it out of her mouth during worship.)

Yes, RantWoman acknowledges that sending 6 sugary skulls as a token that someone fleeing the local police is alive is weird symbolism. In Chen Guang Cheng's "The Barefoot Lawyer" it was actually six packages of dried noodles. RantWoman thinks the skulls are more ironic.

The send six of something communications symbolism was the culmination of a long career as a human rights activist, a spell in prison and then incredibly intrusive house arrest, but back up a few steps.

Six sugary Day of the Dead Skulls
RantWoman is also schlepping around in the brave new world of paying for images. RantWoman has not read the terms of the promo. If the six sugary skulls go poof after some interval, RantWoman begs readers' indulgence and will try to be more attuned to copyright in the future. RantWoman hopes that the images will just stay with the option of downloading.

(RantWoman means also to find the link to Chen's speech at the 2015 American Council of the Blind convention but so far....

Chen was born in rural China in 1971, about the time the Rant children were making the transition from black and white to color television. He was the youngest of 5 boys born after a sister died in infancy. The family was very poor. As an infant, Chen developed some kind of very high fever that lasted 3 days and took his vision. Chen did not go to school at first AND his family had to pay extra taxes and penalties for having a disabled child. Eventually Chen made his way to school and then later to a program at Nanking University.

This was before the onset of China's one-child policy; Chen writes of how many of his family members of his generation were affected by that policy in their childbearing years.

The house arrest was basically full employment for the entire region: Chen, his wife and young daughter were guarded by at least a dozen people at a time, 2 shifts a day. The family kept getting new cellphones, amking videos, shipping the videos out, hiding the cellphones. The secret police kept coming to search. Chen and his wife would quote the Chinese constitution about the police not having a right to search. The police would search anyway, but when the accompanying beatings reached a terrifying level, Chen decided he had to flee.

Chen fled and eventually made it to the US embassy. His case became the subject of an especially vigorous flurry of international negotiations because Chen reached the US embassy just as Secretary of State Clinton was arriving for a summit. Saying anymore would be a spoiler; besides, people should read the whole book to understand the force of Chen's activism.


In general, RantWoman seems presently to excel in NOT go to sleep bedtime reading.

RantWoman downloads something interesting from BARD. RantWoman sticks the USB drive in the cute, Cute, CUTE Talking Book player and cranks the volume and reading speed to desired levels. 
Usually at bedtime RantWoman hits the sleep button twice,  "sleep 15 minutes." "Sleep 30 minutes."  15 minutes is long enough to fall asleep sometimes but not to stay asleep when the reading stops. 30 minutes is sometimes long enough to fall asleep, stay asleep and then have to backtrack the next night. to get what one slept through. Sometimes though the "sleep 30 minutes" option is enough to get RantWoman completely hooked, to remind her that she really should sleep and to force her to admit that she will not be able to sleep and therefore should just prees the "Sleep" button a couple more times. And then a couple more times. And then....

The Horror: First ever Halloween Binge Blog

RantWoman humbly presents her first ever Halloween / Day of the Dead / Dia de los Muertos / All Saints Day / Reformation Sunday Binge blog.



Bats from the belfry flapping against the Moon
Either a haunted house or a weird cactus
On top of average RantWoman scariness levels and bats flapping in and out of various belfries, RantWoman has a whole tangle of things muddling back and forth in different time frames, seasons, geographies. For the occasion, RantWoman went a Halloween / Dia de los Muertos / Day of the dead A// Saints Day / Reformation Sunday image binge. Okay, this is the place to come if you want All Saints or Reformation Sundayeven for terrible linguistic confabulations topical to Reformation Sunday.

This is a binge blog. RantWoman does not promise t o be NICE. In fact, there may be horrors all over the place. RantWoman promises visuals and arty verbiage trying to capture the visuals, intemperate opinions and MAYBE appreciation for people who do things right.



Dia de los muertos Gato Negro con huesos y flores
Day of the Dead Black cat
with bones and flowers



Thursday, October 29, 2015

National Oatmeal Day

RantWoman had no idea there is any such thing as National Oatmeal day.

But since actual #Quakers get confused with the oatmeal people all the time, RantWoman is going to return the favor with a shameless product promo, trademark symbols and everything, inviting Quakers who do not mind the oatmeal meme to take advantage of this fabulous commercial offer.

RantWoman knows perfectly well that lots of people happily consumer plenty of oatmeal completely unencumbered by the Quaker® Oatmeal brand. And good on them too.

Cup of Cranberry Almond protein oatmeal
QuakerOats (@Quaker) tweeted at 3:08 PM on Thu, Oct 15, 2015:
On 10/29, we’re giving away Quaker® Oatmeal for #NationalOatmealDay!
Stay tuned for more details. http://t.co/RpoezflKII(https://twitter.com/Quaker/status/654780906599612416)

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Abundant RantBrother proxies

It was RantBrother’s birthday last week. Happy belated birthday RantBrother.

 RantBrother called RantMom. RantMom says she thinks he’s missing family. Family peculiarly admit to missing him even though the missing comes with a LOT of prayers that RantBrother might somehow be willing to interact with enough help that the rest of the family can…

 Hold that problem in the Light.

 And meanwhile, just when RantWoman was thinking about maybe permitting herself to miss some of RantBrother’s best Brother Demento emails, lo, RantWoman’s email groans with contributions from someone  sipping from the same thought streams: abstruse references to legal matters is random legal jurisdictions, mentions of familya members entangles both in drug trafficking and law enforcement, mysteries derived from the average route straightto spam folder email streams....

Bless us oh Lord with sincere gratitude for the abundance of RantBrother proxies in RantWoman's life.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Can't wear just anywhere: I didn't tell you about #whitecaneday.

RantWoman is terribly glad to see this old Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society emblem surface again recently on Facebook.

Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society Emblem
RantWoman also humbly acknowledges that one can't wear the thing just anywhere. For instance this year, RantWoman observed #whitecaneday a few days ago with lots of officials from several local transportation entities.

RantWoman's WA Council of the Blind T-shirt was dirty. RantWoman exhorted others to wear their WCB T-shirts but no one else who might have worn a T-shirt showed up. Still, probably NOT a good place to wear a Ladies Sewing Circle and Terrorist Society t-shirt.

Pity.

RantWoman got the day off to a festive start on twitter. Someone tweeted about how people should celebrate #whitecaneday by giving a blind person a hug. RantWoman likes hugs a lot, preferably if asked first. RantWoman has serious issues with various forms of "Grab the Blind Person and Bless them," especially if "Grab the blind Person and Bless Them" comes with expectations about extravagant expressions of gratitude for the encounter. So, NO, please DO NOT celebrate #whitecaneday with a hearty round of "Grab the Blind Person and Bless Them."

The first terrifying, real space moment occurred during introductions. RantWoman said the word "Waterfront." Readers can tune into RantWoman's other blog for continued commentary about the waterfront and the word "Accessibility." RantWoman and those assembled opted to duck about the topic for #whitecaneday.

A friend of RantWoman's led a walking tour of big blind-friendly improvements in RantWoman's neighborhood. If you want the right search strings, you will have to look on RantWoman's other blog. Here RantWoman gets to wrestle with all sorts of unholy and less than politic commentary.

One of RantWoman's tasks, it turned out, was to provide color commentary that the friend of RantWoman's could not provide.  For instance, RantWoman opined at one point that it would have been really nice if the organization sponsoring the event, the organization where RantWoman's friend works,  had teamed up with another organization VERY close.

The second organization also gets a lot of foot traffic;  it might be entirely logical for blind people to want to be able to go to on their own via decent sidewalks with good landmarks, that is good landmarks for blind people, from nearby bus stops without needing paratransit just to cope with the last 1-3 blocks of pedestrian route. (RantWoman, CHILL! Chill!. You can do Dial-a-Tirade another time. Chill!)

Everyone who wanted one and did not already have one got issued a white cane. Possibly if RantWoman were just blinder, she would have relied on superior mobility skills and gotten to skip out on being terrified by a bunch of sighted people flailing their canes willy-nilly without even the faintest effort to simulate actual use of white cane for detection and navigation. As it was RantWoman made one comment and then either walked ahead of the group or behind the group the entire rest of the way.

RantWoman's friend did a couple great commentaries about listening for multiple cycles of a traffic light before deciding how to cross the street. RantWoman also did great narrative about the back up and try again problem-solving people who get formal orientation and mobility training get about obstacles and paths they are unsure of.

Maybe the most topical side comment for RantWoman: if you think you are helping and think you know RantWoman well enough to be entitled to automatic thank yous, could you MAYBE listen to RantWoman enough to have a more refined sense of what actually helps. Hint: no, RantWoman STILL can only do VERY minimal facial expressions. Yes, thank you very much, RantWoman can see orange construction barriers if she looks in the right direction soon enough to avoid them; if not she finds them with her white cane and adapts her route accordingly. But if you want big giant smooches of appreciation for telling RantWoman about newly placed construction barriers, please be advised that 1. RantWoman may already have detected the issue arriving at the location and 2. RantWoman is naturally charm-challenged and may possibly have already run out of graciousness thanking bus drivers, bus passengers, random Grab the blind person and bless them perpetrators, street drunks, small children, and passersby for "help."

Anyway, at #whitecaneday, RantWoman asked her friend to please tell her if RantWoman was talking too much. NO, said friend, you were great! (Praise Jesus!)

One of RantWoman's favorite moments: the new #ADA coordinator for the WA State Ferries asked RantWoman a VERY insightful question about the white cane and leaves. It was a dry day. Even so leaves are kind of a pain. It's pretty easy to wind up with kind of a snowplow effect moving a lot of leaves and even worse if the leaves are soggy or it's raining. Leaves are treacherous enough by themselves, but the presence of leaves also frequently indicates the presence of trees nearby, along with enhanced likelihood of sidewalk vs tree root disruptions, the sort of sidewalk discontinuities that increase risk of falls, sprains, broken bones, and general public irritableness! . RantWoman likes trees fine. RantWoman recognizes that leaves are awesome organic matter. But for the safety of white cane users, people with shopping carts, people in wheelchairs, RantWoman was VERY glad for the opportunity to issue a general exhortation for people to please keep their sidewalk right of ways cleared off!


After RantWoman set the date and time for this to post, she remembered the date coincides with a time when she MIGHT in fact have worn the T-shirt, even though people in authority cannot automatically be expected to see humor about anything that says "terrorist society." RantWoman also remembers it was the sort of occasion where people would get searched and political buttons tended to get confiscated as "dangerous weapons," well not as dangerous as the weapons being protested but never mind. The more interesting dynamic. Buttons that said "Refuse to be Abused" sometimes got confiscated and then tended to get flashed from inside someone else's collar.

Here rantWoman will pause for now. rantWOman feels another missive from the bedbugsc coming on but rantWoman must FOCUS for now on....

Friday, October 23, 2015

Pinata


Star-shaped pinata on a therapist's couch: What is the point of being filled with gifts if they can only be beaten out of you?


The New Yorker cartoon above is:

--a meditation rising from an offering in worship about a therapist who challenged the bearer of the message?

--an evocation so confusing and convoluted that people are allowed to be frightened and RantWoman should not expect anyone but a well-trained professional to be able to unravel?

--a fabulous "go talk to your therapist" moment which belongs nowhere near anything purporting to embody the Blog as Quaker Journal model of blogging?

--such a fabulous "go talk to your therapist" moment that there is NO WAY words about the topic would make it out of RantWoman's mouth during a actual therapist's appointment; this is why RantWoman is scrawling them all over the internet in the first place.

--an invitation to riff on the theme of people who are brilliant music teachers for everyone's children but their own, including moments of extravagant praise after some or another particularly abusive moment has generated the desired results?

--a window into the kind of creepy thinking that sometimes comes up in the same sentence as phrases like "National Domestic Violence Awareness Month."

--an invitation to the same sort of wacky theological conversation that happens when someone talks about the Resurrection in terms of someone getting tortured to death and coming back to have a party?

--an impediment and a distraction if RantWoman would like to be taken seriously for grabbing soundbytes such as "It's always bad public policy to start a war?"

--Something just to HOLD IN THE LIGHT for now!

Immoderation


RantWoman is awed and humbled.

 

RantWoman is awed and humbled to encounter so many able contributors to the Still Didn’t Get the memo Committee on Email Immoderation.

 

God is indeed bountiful!

 

Blessings upon us all and all the world’s inboxes!

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Before enlightenment... After enlightenment...

Lately, Meeting for Worship has been visiting and revisiting themes of hope and hopelessness, love and faithfulness.

From Meeting for Worship, a couple weeks ago, a Buddhist quote which RantWoman remembers as :
"Before enlightenment, chop wood; sweep the floor. After enlightenment, chop wood; sweep the floor."

RantWoman: Wait a second! It's the age of global warming and trying NOT to cut down all the planet's magical lungs and natural climate control. What about:

Before enlightenment, Chop wood, sweep the floor.
After Enlightenment, how about passive convection heating, solar-powered cooking, and a renewably powered Roomba (robotic vacuum cleaner) to clean up after ourselves?

Oh, wait, RantWoman is Missing the POINT about faithfulness.

RantWoman missing the point? Impossible!

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

The Angel Band Project event October 26, Benaroya Hall

RantWoman has NO expectation that posting this here will cause anyone to attend the Angel Band Project performance at Benaroya Hall on October 26. In fact, RantWoman is going to make readers look up details your own selves.

RantWoman is simply filing this as part of a continuing story of one VERY gutsy sexual assault survivor. Click with caution; extreme trigger warning for account of horrifying sexual assault.
SLOG: The Angel band Project. Why we're using our voices...

Monday, October 19, 2015

Did your boyfriend do that?

RantWoman is festively celebrating National Domestic Violence Awareness month and National Disability Awareness Month with a tangle of issues present and past.

"Did your boyfriend do that?"

RantWoman heard that a lot during a Summer of Swollen face a few years ago. Mostly the question came from strangers.

(RantWoman sees badly but RantWoman a time or two has thought though not always voiced the same question.)

RantWoman appreciates that she had people in her life who laughed when she said "No, my doctor got paid to do that to me."

RantWoman appreciates that a couple of the people who laughed work for her eye doctor, the practitioner who got paid for RantWoman's swollen face.

RantWoman also appreciates multiple people who suggested arnica, a remedy RantWoman remembered from"herbal medicine witches" she had spent time around years before while being out consensually getting dragged around and coming home all bruised up.

All of that is appreciated but neither here nor there as far as other matters of listening, ableism, and general exasperation.

Please hold all in the Light and find ways to ask about bruises.

The bedbugs, roused

RantWoman would SO have preferred that one to RantWoman's ear NON-URGENT item on a recent Meeting for Business agenda be heard another month when another topical figure as well as one of the people to whom RantWoman is led to say "Thanks but no thanks" could at least be present. RantWoman freely admits, she has been hearing "thanks but no Thanks" uttered a little too often in her direction and keeps testing whether this is the basis for her leadings about "Thanks but No Thanks." Hold that problem in the Light.

In the meantime, RantWoman has received another missive hacked up by her Meeting's bedbugs.

To all Friends everywhere.

Remember us? We are the bedbugs at RantWoman's Meeting. Past precedent has been on leap days to offer our accounting of life at our faithful Interpreter RantWoman's Quaker Meeting.

http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-fares-truth-among-us-as-told-by-our.html

Frankly we have been a little distracted watching the size of the 2016 Republican primary hopefuls list mushroom. We lost count somewhere around 4 zillion and are not particularly amused that most of them seem to boast the same foreign policy consulting firm.

And our faithful interpreter RantWoman has been very busy being true to her Light about matters outside her Meeting.

RantWoman is also very conscientious and we have had several conversations that RantWoman would call "client education." In these typically, the language professional carefully explains to the customer any number of different reasons the customer really should consider engaging another interpreter. We understand RantWoman's concerns that our words might be better heard if they came out of someone else's mouth but we have found no one else with RantWoman's capacity for linguistic nuance and perspicacity.

We are inclined to tell those distressed by our presence that they just need to cope. Sometimes people just get the interpreter they get! We also cope with usual interpreter protocol about speaking of themselves in the third person and the professional norm that if the client utters it the interpreter is liberated of multiple forms of social opprobrium for repeating it. We do not even apologize if this whole paragraph just gives readers headaches trying to figure out who is actually speaking and on whose behalf and whether or not the direct lines to God have somehow gotten tangled.. Consider yourselves held in the Light and Cope!

What has roused us earlier than usual to begin putting together our Leap day offering?

We have learned of a concern, among other things that the State of Society reports from RantWoman's Meeting frequently turn into community laundry lists where all is glorious and the children are all above average and Friends may or may not detect recognizable spiritual content, never mind whether we have even had a conversation about what we mean by "spiritual content" BEFORE we charge someone with cultivating it!

Partly in an effort to start earlier than average and to work on this concern, two volunteers, "It's Not Good for the Community Friend" and "I still don' wanna read RantWoman's email" Friend have stepped forward and announced their desire to speak on behalf of the Meeting. It's Not Good For the community Friend has other Noms de Blog but part of the point of our leading to begin work early examine the state of RantWoman's Meeting arises from the ways "It's not good for the community" Friend and "I have only been trying to Silence RantWoman for Five Years and I cannot understand why she demurs about me thinking I am going to be able to fix any better than I have for 5 years Friend  have done to earn their Noms De Blog.

RantWoman has other concerns, not all of which are documented as RantWoman posts and editorializes. And we, the bedbugs, also recognize that "It's not Good For the Community Friend is particularly distressed about everything to do with Bedbugs. We are sorry. We do not know of anything we can do to help that. If being held in the Light by bedbugs seems palatable please consider this an offer to do so; if not, please cope and do not blame RantWoman either. She is only our messenger.

Sincerely,

The Bedbugs.